On Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump appeared on CNN to participate in what was supposed to be a town hall. Instead, it turned into a de facto political debate with CNN personality Kaitlan Collins.
Combative responses, snarky comments, repeated interruptions, and attempts at fact-checking were all part of Collins’s repertoire. It was unsurprising given the hostile relationship between the left-wing network and the former president. However, it did make one thing abundantly clear to the country: President Joe Biden wouldn’t have been able to endure the rigors Trump faced Wednesday night.
LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA
Don’t get me wrong; Trump gave it as good as he got it. This is not an article to whine about how Trump was a victim of the liberal media. There’s an eight-year track record of how left-wing networks, personalities, and pundits will invariably be rude and disrespect the former president. Yet, we must also admit that if Biden were ever in the situation Trump was in on Wednesday night, he would not have been able to handle it. No matter how one’s personal opinions about Trump, it would be intellectually disingenuous to argue otherwise.
That being said, it’s a safe assumption that CNN would never treat Biden like they treated Trump. Biden’s been in office since January 2021; he’s demonized about half the country’s voters, lied about vaccine efficacy, and insinuated people were accomplices to murder if they didn’t comply with vaccine mandates, yet not one major network or town hall/debate host would ever be as harsh and critical on Biden as they were on Trump. Biden gets asked about his favorite ice cream flavors, while Trump is questioned on complex geopolitical issues and constitutional laws.
Also, consider that the event was advertised as a town hall for the Republican primary. However, any analysis of the topics discussed by Collins shows that she was focused on issues that do not resonate with the majority of Republican voters. Collins repeatedly mentioned Jan. 6, the documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment — many of the topics CNN covers ad nauseam on any of its shows. However, Republican voters care about things like immigration, inflation, the culture war, Bud Light, and government spending on Ukraine. Collins didn’t care about Republican voters; she wanted to represent her left-wing political ideas in a shouting match with Trump.
But all of this is done purposely. Networks will never be anywhere remotely as confrontational with Democrats as they are with Republicans, especially Republican presidential candidates, and even more especially Trump. It’s unfortunate and disappointing because being objectively fair with difficult questions to politicians would be in the country’s best interest.
However, unfair, biased, propagandist circus shows such as Wednesday’s supposed town hall are nothing but glorified reality shows predicated on left-wing political dissent. The only entities that benefit from this are the television networks, which receive millions of dollars in advertising revenue. It may be wishful thinking, but if the political pundits in this country ever decide to be fair and care about educating voters, they will start being as aggressive, contentious, and challenging to President Joe Biden as they are with former President Donald Trump.
